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My Entry into Wildlife

Animals can be misunderstood by people, and overpopulation is putting more pressure on our native wildlife. The media is a powerful tool that sheds light on the impact humans are having on the animal kingdom. My secondary school, (at the time) showed a video about the impact of global warming on our climate. The video made me understand how damaging our ozone layer will reduce the 'sun screen' effect which protects us from the suns radiation.

I suggest heading to this website for a couple of minutes and see how global warming is effecting wildlife.http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Threats-to-Wildlife/Global-Warming/Effects-on-Wildlife-and-Habitat.aspx.Levels are lowering and animal deaths are rising. I recently read an article in the news about dead whales washing up ashore on beaches, it's a problem that will continue to grow as global population increases.

Reasons to Enjoy Filming Wildlife

There are a few reasons why I film animals.

There is a lot of enjoyment to be had when travelling to new places and observing how wild animals survive in their environment.

You can share your experiences and discoveries with others, through a visual representation (video).

The satisfaction of sneaking up to an animal without disturbing it, then finding the best shots to film them is exciting.

The possibility of filming an interesting behaviour which hasn't been captured yet.

Canon C100 with Ninja Blade, Filming Swans

Wildlife Kit

To film both wildlife and brand marketing videos I decided on purchasing the Canon 100 with a Ninja Blade external recorder. I knew on paper that the C100/Ninja combination would deliver a slightly better visual than the standard Canon C300 camera. The Canon C300 camera and C100 have the same sensor technology and very similar camera features. The main differences:

The C100 compresses the image internally and does not offer 720p 60p slow motion.

The C300 is about £6500 more expensive than the C100 and Ninja Blade combo.

C300 has a better ergonomic physical design.

C300 has a better viewfinder. Although the C100 mkII also has a good viewfinder.

Most of my projects have been shot on a C100, although I have shot several films on the C300, and switching between the two cameras is easy. My otter documentary below, shot on the C300, time-lapse photography on the 5DMKII and GoPro.

Water Dogs - Otters

Lenses

The glass I would recommend for low budget documentary productions are Canon L series lenses. The L series and USM lenses provide a crisp clarity in shots I wanted the sort of detail they can pick up. The glass I went for was the Canon 24-105mm f/4 and 70-200mm f/2.8 L series lenses. Buying a good tripod was a difficult decision. I was tempted to hold back on my finances feeling other tripods could provide me a stable and fluid enough platform for smooth pans and tilts. I ended up getting the Sachtler Carbon Fibre tripod with FSB8T head. The tripod is light enough to carry long distances and the head can handle the 7kg weight of my camera fully rigged. Below is an example video of the C100 with Ninja Blade set-up.

Stags at Great Windsor Park

Limitations

There are several limitations to the C100/Ninja set-up

The C100/Ninja combination takes a good 10-15minutes to rig. It's the the extra HDMI cable, articulating attachment arm, two battery's, SSD and the main monitor. Then making sure the settings are correct on the recorder/monitor.

C100 has a 4K sized sensor but only offers 1080p output.

No super slow motion capability. You can cheat 50% interlaced slow motion by filming in 50i at 100shutter speed and pulling that into a 25p timeline.

Dragonflies with Paul Ritchie

Camera Body Timeline

Technology is constantly developing and for filmmakers trying to be competitive, there is a temptation to splurge on the latest tech. For most cameramen the aim is to buy a F55/RED/ARRI camera system. Cameras will continue to change in ergonomic and technological design and with a greater number of camera bodies to choose from it will become increasingly easier to film documentary and cinema films in the same system.